Evelyn Banks

Evelyn Banks-Shackelford is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church serving as a Church and Community Worker (CCW) with the Marianna Larger Parish in Arkansas.

Church and Community Workers respond to God’s call to ministry among the poor and disenfranchised in rural and urban areas throughout the United States. They work to change the social inequities of poverty, racial injustice, and domestic violence. Evelyn has been a CCW since 1987, and her previous assignment was in Forrest City, Arkansas.

Ms. Banks serves five churches in these Arkansas Delta communities, which are familiar surroundings for Evelyn, as her grandparents raised her on a family farm. Evelyn shares that her role as a CCW has changed over the years, evolving based on the economic and justice issues that have been identified by the parish, district, and conference.

Evelyn says of her ministry, “My work reflects God’s mission in the world as it relates to empowering people to help themselves, to enable them to meet their daily basic needs. It gives me an opportunity to advocate for the vulnerable people in the community—the elderly, youth, young mothers, and the disabled—helping them to connect to resources.”

Some of her responsibilities oversee an emerging ministry that is feeding the hungry in the parish communities, operating an area food bank that will be used to disburse food to the local food pantries and churches, and supplying children with backpacks of food on the weekends. Evelyn also coordinates conference United-Methodist-Volunteer-In-Mission work teams coming to the Marianna Parish. “These ministries give people an opportunity to volunteer and give something back to the communities they live in and near.”

Evelyn is a native of Arkansas and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural business from Arkansas State University. She grew up in the Mississippi River Delta, raised in a United Methodist church that was named for her great grandfather.

Evelyn and husband Leroy are the parents of three sons: Tristen, Tavian, and Xavier.